1 22 Dr. Frout'sjurther Remarks, Sfc. 



the only one bearing on the point in question that was strictly 

 deducible from the method employed; and more could not 

 have been well said without destroying the unity of my design, 

 and entering on details which, for the reasons above stated, I 

 concluded would have been taken for granted. 



With respect to the second assumption; namely, that I de- 

 nied generally, and under all circumstances, the existence of 

 every other acid in the stomachs of animals, except the muriatic 

 acid, — I can only say, that nothing was further from my inten- 

 tion. On the contrary, I distinctly alluded to the " occasional 

 presence of other acids in the stomach," taking it for granted 

 that such an occurrence must sometimes happen. What I did 

 assert, and what I again assert is, that in the cases related, and 

 in all others in which a rigorous examination was instituted 

 up to the period mentioned, no other acid did occur in any 

 appreciable quantity ; and I acknowledge that in consequence 

 of this experience, I was induced to conclude that the presence 

 of other acids was comparatively of rare occurrence, and my 

 subsequent experience decidedly favours this conclusion. I have 

 already said, that since my paper was read before the Royal 

 Societjr, I have occasionally, by means precisely similar to 

 those formerly employed, detected the presence of combustible 

 acids in the stomach, and have expressed a belief that these 

 acids were probably derived from the food ; and in several of 

 the instances, I have no doubt this was the case. I wish how- 

 ever by no means to be understood to deny that the stomach 

 occasionally secretes a combustible acid in a free state # , though 



I think 



acid in a fluid ejected from the human stomach so long ago as 1820, but 

 then thought that its presence was accidental, or that by some means or 

 other I had deceived myself ; and when I commenced the experiments in 

 question, I was actually prejudiced in favour of a destructible acid, viz. the 

 lactic acid of Berzelius (though the distinct nature of this acid always, I 

 confess, appeared to me to be somewhat problematical). In consequence of 

 this prejudice,therefore, the inquiry was conducted in a much more rigorous 

 and elaborate manner than it probably otherwise would have been ; and 

 after a series of the most complete evidence that perhaps was ever brought 

 to bear on a chemical point, I was obliged to conclude, is opposition to my 

 preconceived notion that the acid was the muriatic and no other. 

 On reflecting, however, on this most unexpected fact, I soon saw its im- 

 portance, and that, in short, it was one of those leading facts that opens 

 up an entire new field of inquiry. So satisfied indeed was I of this, that a 

 work on the digestive functions, in which I had been long engaged, and 

 which I had actually begun to print, was suppressed ; and since that time I 

 have been engaged in an entire new field of research, which I fear will yet 

 occupy me for several years to come. 



* Within the last few months I have seen a very remarkable case of dis- 

 ease, where the acetic acid seemed to be formed, not only by the stomach, 

 but the salivary glands, &c. in great abundance. In this case the breath of 



the 



